George W. Bush: Garner decision ‘hard to understand’

Former President George W. Bush says that the controversial decision by a Staten Island grand jury not to indict a white police officer in the chokehold death of a black man is “hard to understand.”

{mosads}”You know, the verdict was hard to understand,” Bush said in a clip of an interview with CNN posted Friday. “But, you know, I hadn’t seen all the details.

“But it’s sad that race continues to play such a kind of emotional divisive part of life,” he continued. “I remember back when I was a kid in the 70s and there was racial riots, with cities being burned. I do think we’ve improved.”

He said he had dinner the other night with his former secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, who is black. 

“We talked about this subject, and yeah, she just said, you gotta understand that there are a lot of black folks around that are just incredibly, more and more, distrusting of law enforcement,” Bush said. “Which is a shame, because law enforcement’s job is to protect everybody.”

The Wednesday decision by the grand jury not to indict officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner has set off protests around the country and bipartisan concern. 

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said there were “unanswered questions” around the case and another one in Ferguson, Mo., and said he is open to congressional hearings. 

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Hillary Clinton, both likely presidential candidates, have called for criminal justice reform in recent days.